|
 Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will promote the country's biofuel initiatives during the United Nation's annual general assembly meeting Tuesday, September 25, as part of a broader effort to fight climate change.
Lula will deliver his speech during the opening of the assembly, one day after attending a high-level private dinner called by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to foster discussions on climate change, said the head of the Brazilian permanent mission to the United Nations, ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti.
"It is expected that Lula will talk a lot about climate change, and biofuels in that context, besides the reform of the UN security council, development and social inclusion," Viotti told journalists.
Twelve world leaders are invited for the Monday's dinner at the UN's headquarters, including the presidents of the United States, Indonesia, South Africa, France, Mexico, Benin, and the European Commission, as well as the prime ministers of Germany, Portugal, Canada, and Antigua and Barbuda.
"Ban Ki-moon wants to give a political boost to the Bali meeting," Viotti said, referring to the UN convention on climate change scheduled for December in the Indonesian island.
Brazil's is a pioneer in developing biodiesel, and currently the world's largest exporter of ethanol. European countries have recently raised environmental concerns about the production of ethanol, in a move seen by the Brazilian government as an attempt to undermine the country's biofuels production.
Mercopress
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
If Bush wasn’t so stupid, I would give the “idiot of the new millennium” award to Lula.
Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop BOOM – O hino Nacional do Brasil.